


Raising Hope

by writerposer



Series: Genesis [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Croatoan/Endverse (Supernatural), Angst, Cas is 26, Dean is 33, Fluff, M/M, Timestamp, but they don't behave like their endverse selves, light angst tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26055613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerposer/pseuds/writerposer
Summary: When Cas brings up kids for the first time, Dean panics. How the hell is Dean supposed to have a kid during the apocalypse?This is a time stamp but can be read as a stand-alone !
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Charlie Bradbury/Claire Novak, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Series: Genesis [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891459
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	Raising Hope

“Do you think you’d ever want one?” Cas asked.

He was looking out from the little porch Dean had added to their cabin the year before, after their camp had managed to build a rudimentary lumber yard by the forest. They tried to only take from the forest what they needed to make their camp feel like a town. They built houses for those who were still living in tents, special furniture, a proper infirmary, and a little gallery. And with some of the leftover gallery wood, Dean built a pretty little porch off the front of their cabin, and furniture to match. Cas was sitting on the little swing, watching his students play tag out front. 

Dean knew what Cas was asking, and he figured it was only a matter of time before they tried to have this conversation. The man was only 26, but he loved children, which was why he was put in charge of schooling in the first place. At 33, Dean should be more ready for that question. Hell, Sammy had three kids already, and he wasn’t even 30 yet. Things moved faster these days, since the fucking zombie apocalpyse. 

Somehow, they had carved up their own little piece of sanity down in Texas. Ash, that psycho genius, had actually managed to make a working Croat vaccine. After innoculating everyone in camp, younger folks made diplomatic trips to other survivor camps to give them the vaccine too. Those that had been strong enough to weather attacks from violent Roamers had grown quite robust, and some even had the capabilities to replicate the vaccine on their own, or people who knew how to at least. Last Dean had heard, immunity was spreading, and though no one wanted to test it, some predicted that the next generation born might have immunity too. Dean wasn’t smart enough to guess what would happen in the future anymore, he just wanted to focus on the right-here, right-now. Which made Cas’s question complicated.

“You know, I don’t think we have the right parts to make our own,” Dean said with a chuckle, and Cas shot a glare at him. 

“I’m well aware of our biology Dean,” Cas said.

Dean sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have made it a joke. Dean eased himself into the seat next to Cas, and wound his way around his boyfriend’s shoulders. They enjoyed the quiet for a moment, watching the kids play as the sun started to dip. One of those rugrats was his niece, Ellie, and they watched silently as she jumped up on Benny’s son’s back. Even Chuck had a few kids running around, though they tended to be jumpy, like their father. 

“I like our family how it is,” Dean said after a while. 

That seemed to mollify Cas, who pecked his cheek before heading back inside. There was no real point in staying up past dark. They tried to direct most of their electricity to the center of camp, for search lights and other emergency needs. 

“Get back home before you hurt yourselves in the dark!” Dean shouted off his porch, and some of the kids cursed back at him, but it brought a smile to his face. 

Dean crawled into bed beside Cas, who was already sleeping. Dean tried to chase sleep, but he found himself staring at the ceiling. What if kids were something Cas needed? Dean couldn’t give them to him, and they’d never really talked about it, but what is to stop Cas from getting someone pregnant and starting his own family? It was his right. He came from a huge family, of course he wouldn’t be happy with their little two person operation. He didn’t deserve Dean’s baggage, he was so young. He had so much ahead of him. Dean’s thoughts spiraled until he fell into a fitful sleep, and when he woke up, Cas was gone. Terror seized him, until Dean remembered that Cas left early to go teach at the school house on Mondays. Dean collapsed back into bed. He didn’t even know how to be a father. 

“How would it even work?” Dean asked. 

Cas looked up from his reading, and smiled softly from the rocking chair that Dean had made him for his birthday. 

“Well, there are a few possibilities. I was speaking with Claire, and she proposed some sort of arrangement with her and Charlie, wherein we swap “necessary parts” and conceive some children that would be biologically related to us,” Cas said. 

Dean’s head swam. It was all so nauseatingly simple. 

“You’ve already been discussing it?” Dean said, though he knew his tone was too harsh when Cas glared. 

“I’m allowed to speak to my sister about whatever I choose,” Cas said. 

“I know, it’s just, yesterday it was a question and today it’s a plan,” Dean said.

“I’m not asking you to make a decision. You asked me how it would work and I’m telling you,” Cas said. 

Dean resisted the urge to run. He was a grown man, he could handle this conversation. Dean sat down on their bed, and Cas ambled over and rubbed his shoulders. 

“There’s also the possibility of adoption. Say anything unfortunate happens to one of the pregnant in our community, or we find any orphaned children outside of our walls, we could take them in, as others have. Though I’m a little wary of making such on the spot decisions,” Cas said, rubbing Dean’s shoulders. 

Dean stayed quiet, letting Cas massage the building tensions out of his neck, feeling himself calm down as quickly as he got worked up. 

“And, if my opinion counts for anything, I think you’d make a wonderful father Dean,” Cas said. 

“What if I’m just like him?” Dean whispered, and Cas wrapped his arms around him.  
Dean could feel Cas’s heart beating strongly where his chest met his back. It was steady. Calm. Just like his Cas. 

“Look at Sam, he’s a wonderful father beyond your upbringing,” Cas pointed out.

“Yeah but Sam is Sam. He was always good,” Dean grumbled. 

“And you are you. You saved my life. You saved my sister. You are the reason all these people around us have safe homes. You saved the world Dean,” Cas said in Dean’s ear. 

“Well, I’d be nothing without you,” Dean said, looking down at Cas’s hands, which have made their way to his own, covering them and intertwining their fingers. 

“And our child will have both of us to count on,” Cas replied easily. 

“Child? Singular?” 

Dean heard Cas chuckle at that, and soon he was being pulled back onto bed, Cas covering his face with soft yet lingering kisses. 

A year and a half later, Hope Novak-Winchester was born, and Dean had never felt more full.


End file.
